Barnaby Ruhe's paintings show humanity of women in prison

The day-long painting marathons of Barnaby Ruhe are the stuff of legend in the Lehigh Valley.

Last October the artist found himself rendering the portraits of a rather select, if not captive, audience — female offenders participating in a work-release program run by The Program for Women and Families in Allentown, a 32 year-old nonprofit organization providing assistance to non-violent adult offenders, their families and at-risk youth.

The result is 38 portraits painted during two day-long marathon painting stretches at the program's former facility on North Sixth Street.

The works will be on view in "Her Dream ... Woman in Prison," at the Antonio Salemme Foundation in Allentown beginning March 24. The paintings will be accompanied by words of thanks in the form of letters written by the women to Ruhe. Each portrait is being given by Ruhe to the subject upon her discharge from the program.

Ruhe — who happens to have a doctorate in shamanism, is a six-time world boomerang champion and teaches at New York University — is known for his unique, spontaneous "psychic" style and blitzkrieg approach to painting.

"There is an energy field that surrounds a person," the Upper Milford painter says. "I spend 10 to 30 minutes on each portrait trying to capture that energy."

Ruhe discovered that this experience was a little different from his usual sittings. "At first I thought, this is a great opportunity to paint strong emotions on faces," says Ruhe. "What I found was I was entering into the prison system instead of avoiding it."

Each resulting portrait is uniform, about 10 inches square. The strokes are quick, expressionist blazes of color. They are best described as a flurry of brushstroke and activity that carves out a face amid the paint, capturing expression and mood.

This is Ruhe's signature style, and in this size and format, it really works well. The result is a collection of vibrant, intimate portraits — some of the women hold up pictures of their kids.

The story of how this exhibition came about begins with Joyce Dougherty, executive director of The Program for Women and Families.

In September, Dougherty was facing a deadline for the closing of the Women's Work Center on North Sixth Street, which had been in existence for 20 years. The program was scheduled to move to the new Community Corrections facility in Salisbury Township at the end of October.

To both commemorate the closing and honor the women in the program, Dougherty approached Ruhe with the idea of a marathon painting session with the women. "I decided, let's make it a celebration," Dougherty says.

Ruhe, who had worked with Dougherty and the program in previous fundraisers, thought it would "give the women something positive to focus on."

The sessions were scheduled for October 7 and 17 last year with a sign-up sheet for those who wanted to participate. "We told them we wanted to do something special for them prior to the move," says Dougherty. While, initially, only a few women signed up, when the day for the portraits came Dougherty says she was relieved to see that "… once we started everyone signed up."

"I think this was Barnaby's first real exchange and contact with women in prison," notes Dougherty. "What Barnaby did was to see the humanity, the beauty in every single woman."

"He left me speechless," she says of Ruhe.

Actually, about 15 years ago, Ruhe completed another series of paintings dealing with inmates in Lehigh County, but, says Ruhe, "this is the first time I had an intimate one-on-one engagement with women in prison."

Ruhe thought the women saw the paintings as a mirror of themselves. "In America," he says, "we have to face our shadows."

"We have to remember that these are people. They're our sons and daughters, our neighbors. And people make mistakes."

As the works are given to women who have been discharged from the program, a smaller, framed version replaces it in the collection.

Since October, all 38 works (11 of them have been claimed) have hung in the office of The Program for Women and Families on Hamilton Street in Allentown.

At the Salemme gallery, a few blocks away, they will be exhibited along with a DVD of the sessions showing Ruhe at work on the portraits.

Also on display will be some of the letters the women wrote to Ruhe in thanks, for both the experience and the gift of the paintings. During the sessions, Ruhe would ask the women to describe what their life dream was.

"I was kind of testing them, looking for their 'superpower,' their dream. What they wanted to do with their life."

Selected excerpts of the letters from the women to Ruhe speak for themselves:

"My best life dream is to be a wonderful and successful woman. Have a great career. Enjoy life with my wonderful two boys and spouse. Be able to live life to the fullest and give my kids everything they need."

"When you were painting my portrait, I was just wondering how in your artistic eye you would perceive me. People who know the real me say I have a wall around me and let very few people through it. This is very true."

"When I sat down in that chair for you to do my portrait, I felt like I was the only one in the room, looking beautiful and having someone with your potential doing my portrait, something I never had done before. To have that light on me made me feel like I was very special."